Well I would argue that the DNC did stop Bernie with the desire to get Hillary on the ballot. But getting back to the question; It’s a long shot because of the naturalized citizen angle, but Cenk Uygur (known from the TYT podcasts) perhaps would be an interesting choice. A Turkish-born American though, sadly this will disqualify him with the current electoral rules, but at least he’s educated, and not over 80, and I know he’s fighting to stay in the run despite these hurdles.
The Florida Democratic Party’s executive committee voted to cancel their primary at the end of October 2023 and declare Biden the winner
The Tennessee Democratic Party decided to list only Biden as a ballot option for its primary after a November 11 meeting
The North Carolina Democratic Party acknowledged receiving requests for ballot access from Phillips and other candidates, but chose to only include Biden for its primary
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin left Phillips off the ballot; he appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on January 26, 2024. The court unanimously ruled on February 2 that Phillips should be included on the ballot.
But sure, we definitely need a former CEO and one of the wealthiest men in congress to be president because, as we’ve learned, wealthy CEOs make the best presidents.
I’d say it’s less of a question of willingness and more of a question of “will the Democratic establishment tolerate this” thing. There is no discussion about support for Israel for example, and that’s just the most glaringly current one. Trump is awful in a lot of other ways, but one of his crimes is acting the radical to Biden’s moderate, making Biden and the Dems the only sensible choice.
There is a problem with not being able to vote for people who would represent you, and only being able to vote for someone who is not a literal fascist. The US should be able to do better than one of its leading presidential candidates touting the accomplishment of identifying a whale in a picture book correctly.
In a functioning democracy, there is more than one sane choice.
There is no shortage of people who could be willing to challenge the Democratic establishment. They just aren’t doing it. Unless you count Dean Phillips, and I don’t.
It’s hard to challenge the establishment if it is as established as it is. By the nature of the system, a challenger running on public healthcare or repealing anti-labour union regulations can’t come from outside the Dem party, since third party candidates don’t go anywhere. But you also can’t get anywhere with that inside the party, because you would be a fringe.
The problem is that people don’t get to vote on policy, policy shifts depend on internal party dynamics. And that’s awfully far from a healthy democracy. Can you vote for prohibiting right-to-work laws in your next election? In mine, I get to say climate change is important to me, or free enterprise, or strong border controls, or a better healthcare system. I get to vote on issues that impact me and are important to me, largely without them being bundled together with stuff I don’t like. It’s not perfect, but it’s not like I get to choose between voting for the interests of corporations versus nazis.
Biden is the worst candidate of the bunch by that metric. His favorability is 17 points underwater right now, and he’s losing to Trump in most recent polls by around 4 to 6 points. And keep in mind that that’s measuring popular vote, not electoral votes. Hillary won the popular vote by 2 points and still lost the election. Biden needs to lead Trump by at least 3 points to even have a chance, it took a +4.5 margin to win last time around. And while we’re comparing to Hillary, her favorability was only 15 points underwater in October after the Comey report.
Cornel West would be a way better choice. Even Dean Phillips would be less bad of a choice (y’know that whole “lesser evil” thing and all that). In polls, a generic Democrat leads Trump by 6 points.
But it’s all a moot point because Democrats keep shutting down primaries and removing candidates from the ballot. They’re attempting another coronation just like they did in 2016 - why would any candidate try to run when the party leadership is shutting them down?
I read everything you wrote. It ignored what I wrote, which was:
Do you know of a willing candidate who has a significant chance of beating Trump other than Biden?
You did not name one. You made a lot of excuses, but you didn’t name one. Unless you think Cornell West has a chance of beating Trump. Polls certainly don’t suggest so.
Do you know of a willing candidate who has a significant chance of beating Trump other than Biden?
Hear that chirping?
The unmistakable sound of crickets.
There may have been one, but the DNC and dark money would never have allowed it.
People keep saying things like this, but it’s not like that stopped people like Bernie.
Well I would argue that the DNC did stop Bernie with the desire to get Hillary on the ballot. But getting back to the question; It’s a long shot because of the naturalized citizen angle, but Cenk Uygur (known from the TYT podcasts) perhaps would be an interesting choice. A Turkish-born American though, sadly this will disqualify him with the current electoral rules, but at least he’s educated, and not over 80, and I know he’s fighting to stay in the run despite these hurdles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Phillips_2024_presidential_campaign
You really think people want Dean Phillips to be president?
Do they like his idea of putting Elonk Musk in his cabinet?
But sure, we definitely need a former CEO and one of the wealthiest men in congress to be president because, as we’ve learned, wealthy CEOs make the best presidents.
Oh, and if you want someone who is going to be hardline on Israel, it won’t be Dean Phillips.. I’m sure his buddies on Fox & Friends are right there with him on that one.
From what I can tell, the “draw” of Phillips is he isn’t as old as Biden. Because he sure doesn’t sound like a good alternative to me.
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I’d say it’s less of a question of willingness and more of a question of “will the Democratic establishment tolerate this” thing. There is no discussion about support for Israel for example, and that’s just the most glaringly current one. Trump is awful in a lot of other ways, but one of his crimes is acting the radical to Biden’s moderate, making Biden and the Dems the only sensible choice.
There is a problem with not being able to vote for people who would represent you, and only being able to vote for someone who is not a literal fascist. The US should be able to do better than one of its leading presidential candidates touting the accomplishment of identifying a whale in a picture book correctly.
In a functioning democracy, there is more than one sane choice.
There is no shortage of people who could be willing to challenge the Democratic establishment. They just aren’t doing it. Unless you count Dean Phillips, and I don’t.
It’s hard to challenge the establishment if it is as established as it is. By the nature of the system, a challenger running on public healthcare or repealing anti-labour union regulations can’t come from outside the Dem party, since third party candidates don’t go anywhere. But you also can’t get anywhere with that inside the party, because you would be a fringe.
The problem is that people don’t get to vote on policy, policy shifts depend on internal party dynamics. And that’s awfully far from a healthy democracy. Can you vote for prohibiting right-to-work laws in your next election? In mine, I get to say climate change is important to me, or free enterprise, or strong border controls, or a better healthcare system. I get to vote on issues that impact me and are important to me, largely without them being bundled together with stuff I don’t like. It’s not perfect, but it’s not like I get to choose between voting for the interests of corporations versus nazis.
Biden is the worst candidate of the bunch by that metric. His favorability is 17 points underwater right now, and he’s losing to Trump in most recent polls by around 4 to 6 points. And keep in mind that that’s measuring popular vote, not electoral votes. Hillary won the popular vote by 2 points and still lost the election. Biden needs to lead Trump by at least 3 points to even have a chance, it took a +4.5 margin to win last time around. And while we’re comparing to Hillary, her favorability was only 15 points underwater in October after the Comey report.
Cornel West would be a way better choice. Even Dean Phillips would be less bad of a choice (y’know that whole “lesser evil” thing and all that). In polls, a generic Democrat leads Trump by 6 points.
But it’s all a moot point because Democrats keep shutting down primaries and removing candidates from the ballot. They’re attempting another coronation just like they did in 2016 - why would any candidate try to run when the party leadership is shutting them down?
So you can’t actually name a willing candidate who has a significant chance of beating Trump other than Biden. Gotcha.
By the way, you are aware that Cornel West isn’t running as a Democrat, right?
Bazinga!
I’m super impressed by your ability to ignore literally everything I wrote.
I read everything you wrote. It ignored what I wrote, which was:
You did not name one. You made a lot of excuses, but you didn’t name one. Unless you think Cornell West has a chance of beating Trump. Polls certainly don’t suggest so.